Lawless in Gaza: leaders try to end chaos

[barb162]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1692840,00.html

Lawless in Gaza: leaders try to end chaos by taking guns off the street

Chris McGreal in Gaza
Monday January 23, 2006
The Guardian


Palestinian leaders yesterday tried to end the political and clan violence that has plagued Gaza since the Israeli withdrawal by ordering their followers to keep guns off the streets during this week's elections.

The growing lawlessness, fuelled by the proliferation of weapons turned inward now there are no Israelis to fight, has resulted in a string of shootings, kidnappings of foreigners and inter-family feuds that have left a score of people dead. The situation has been exacerbated by the strong showing of Hamas against the established Fatah regime.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has described the overall security situation in Gaza as deteriorating daily and warned that some of the violence is intended to "undermine" the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in 10 years on Wednesday.
The latest victim is Suleiman Ashabia, a campaign manager of the small Third Way party. On Friday evening, he responded to a phone call from a stranger asking for election posters and agreed to meet in the market of Maghazi refugee camp. About a hundred yards from Mr Ashabia's home, a masked man appeared, raised a Kalashnikov and fired.
snip

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Scary, but interesting.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the end. However, what happens after the election? Will they go back to the 'common enemy' or will they continue to jockey for positions via violence?

I also wonder if a political party will emerge from Hamas, as what similarly happened with Hizzb'allah, one political, one terrorist.

[barb162]

2. t's really up in the air, isn't it

[pelsar]

3. sad but not surprising.....

it was pretty obvious that the culture of violence that was developed was not suddenly "going to end" with the israeli withdrawl. on the contrary, without a subsitute it can only continue.......

Hamas offers the single "group" with discipline and a distint heirarchy....the problem is no one knows what their agenda really is and what it will become, and it seems according to the infighting neither do they.

Iran is a sad example of a secular society, that brought in religous extremists to remove a secular dictator.....and what they got was a dictatorship with the addition of "moral squads" that hang kids from cranes, probably not a very good deal.

and it gets worse with the closing of the border crossings in to israel because of terrorits threats (and the lack of the PAs ability to guard their own borders), their internal econ situation gets even worse.....

i wonder what the palestenians in the westbank think when they look over at gaza today....I havent seen much written about it.